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Solar Defence and Aerospace Ltd. (SDAL) on Friday demonstrated its indigenous “Bhargavastra“ vehicle-mounted counter-swarm drone system to the Indian Army, showcasing a layered hard-kill solution designed to neutralise weaponised drones, loitering munitions and autonomous drone swarms.
The demonstration was conducted at SDAL’s Nagpur facility on July 24 as part of a status review under the Army’s Make-II programme.
The company showcased the complete Bhargavastra weapon system, comprising a Command and Control Vehicle equipped with radar, electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors and passive radio-frequency detectors integrated with a C4I network, along with a launcher vehicle carrying multiple launch tubes.
During the trial, SDAL flew a swarm of drones that were detected and tracked by the system’s radar, EO/IR and RF sensors. The integrated C4I system generated a real-time air picture, issued a drone attack alert and assigned targets to the launcher, following which the complete firing sequence was demonstrated before the Army team.
“This entire system is complete in itself. We will complete its internal trials in 2-3 months. Officers from the Navy had come yesterday. And now Army officers have seen this. We had already tested the micro-missile in Balasore and Pokhran. Today, we also tested the radar, electro-optics control system, and missile; we have the complete system. Trials have also been done. The radar has a range of up to 10 km, and the EOTS (electro-optical tracking system) is six kilometres. But as per the Army’s requirement, its range is up to two and a half kilometres. But we have already started making this six-kilometre missile,” said Satyanarayan Nuwal, Chairman, Solar Defence and Aerospace Ltd. (SDAL).
Bhargavastra has been developed as a cost-effective hard-kill solution against the growing threat posed by drones and loitering munitions, particularly autonomous systems that are resistant to conventional electronic warfare measures such as jamming and spoofing.
The system employs indigenously developed unguided rockets and precision micro-missiles in a multi-layer engagement architecture to destroy both individual drones and coordinated swarms. According to the company, it has been designed for seamless integration with the Indian Armed Forces’ existing command, control, communications and intelligence (C4I) networks.
SDAL said the system is engineered for deployment across deserts, plains and high-altitude mountainous terrain, protecting India’s land borders. The company added that Bhargavastra offers a significantly cheaper alternative to using costly surface-to-air missiles against relatively inexpensive drones, improving the cost-exchange ratio in counter-drone operations.
The company said the programme was conceived several years ago in anticipation of the growing role of drones in modern warfare, a trend reinforced by conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia, where drones have become a dominant battlefield capability.
SDAL claimed that while several countries are developing rocket- and micro-missile-based counter-drone systems, Bhargavastra is among the first fully integrated, vehicle-mounted systems designed specifically to counter drone swarms using a combination of unguided rockets and precision micro-missiles.
According to the company, the visiting Indian Army team appreciated the technological progress made under the programme and expressed satisfaction with the system’s potential contribution to India’s indigenous air defence capability. SDAL said it is prepared to field the Bhargavastra system for user evaluation following further development milestones.
Team BharaShakti
